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Sunday, August 26, 2012

I *love* this polish!!! I have learned that if my husband shows me a polish in a store, it's going to turn out to be an amazing polish that I love once I put it on my fingernails. In the bottle I never see the full beauty of polishes my husband notices in stores. He has a special eye for them. So, one Saturday we were at a Walgreens drugstore, and my husband brought me two Layla duochrome-looking polishes and then showed me the Layla display. Layla is a brand from Italy that I had only ever seen at Ulta. I definitely have never seen it at any other Walgreens location. The display even had the Layla magnetic polishes. They are not inexpensive like some other drugstore polishes, though, so I narrowed my choice down to one to try Layla's Metal Sense line. My choice was Layla Metal Sense #7, that I think is a duochrome with gold and with a shade of light violet or lavender or purple pink. It's difficult for me to describe that second color. It could be just iridescent but it looks duochrome to me. It's got a metallic finish that is almost chrome-like or mirror-like from afar.

The formula was good, and application was easy. The brush is slightly widened and flattened. The polish dried quickly. Cleanup took some time because I had shimmer everywhere on my fingers. I had to use a cotton-tipped orange stick for cleanup after my usual brush cleanup.

I applied two coats of the polish, and I had visible nail line, but I didn't mind it. The formula seemed to show brush strokes at times, but they don't look bad. Some metallic polishes are just grainy or show brush strokes at times.

I did have a problem, though. One hour after I finished the manicure, I dented a nail so badly that I had to redo that nail the next morning. I think the problem was not with the Layla polish, though, but with my Seche Vite. I had added some Seche Vite Restore thinner to a half-used bottle of Seche Vite, and maybe I added too much of the thinner to the Seche Vite. I have since switched to a new bottle of Seche Vite and put the half-used bottle aside as emergency Seche Vite. I did get some shrinkage caused by quick dry top coats.

The polish wore very well. The only issue I had, and again this may be due to the Seche Vite, is that the polish didn't seem "flexible." I had a nail bend back, and the polish cracked at the bend.

Here are some pictures:

Indoors, flash. Day Two.

Indoors, office lighting. Day Two.

Indoors, office lighting. Day Two.

Indoors, office lighting. Day Two.

Sunlight. Day Two.

Indirect sunlight. Day Two.

Sunlight. Day Two.

Sunlight. Day Two.

Sunlight. Day Two.

Sunlight. Day Two.

Indoors, bathroom lighting. Day Three.
Shows the pink/purple shade in the bottle.

Indoors, bathroom lighting. Day Three.
Slightly different angle shows the gold shade in the bottle and also the pink at the edges.

Indoors, bathroom lighting. Day Three.

I thought the polish was unique, and I couldn't find blog posts about it online. In fact, I couldn't even find a place to buy it online, not even at the Ulta website. So, I looked online to see if I could find polishes with similar colors. At first my searches came up with Zoya Reece and Happi and Zara and Faye, but the shade of pink in those is different from Metal Sense #7. I also saw pictures of Sally Hansen's Golden Cinnabar which looked similar. Here are some links to posts on other blogs about similar polishes:

As I write this post, Tropical Storm Isaac is over South Florida, and tropical storm conditions will intensify here for the next 12 hours and continue for probably another 12 hours after that. So far we have not lost power in our home, so I'm taking advantage of that to put up a blog post, maybe even two posts if I can.

On Saturdays, after a week of wear on my manicures, I usually try an accent nail of glitter or some other special effect top coat because I don't have to worry about being work-appropriate, and I take off my polish and give myself a new manicure on Sundays just in time for work on Monday.

In the pictures in this post, the base color is L'Oreal's L'Orange, which I reviewed here. In the pictures it looks red, but it's orange in real life. My camera photographs oranges as reds and purples as blues, and I have not figured out a way around that yet. I had worn the L'Orange for a week, so there is tip wear and shrinkage in the photos below.

I decided that Saturday to try Blackheart Beauty's Deceit--a flakie polish--as an accent nail on my left hand. Blackheart Beauty is an edgy brand of cosmetics created especially for Hot Topic. From what I understand, the products are vegan-friendly and not tested on animals. The products are very low in price, and the prices are even lower now. They are available in Hot Topic stores in malls and also online at Hot Topic's website. Everything is buy-one-get-one-half-off now on the site.

I started out with an accent nail on my left hand with Deceit, but I liked it so much that I put the Deceit flakie polish on all my nails on my left hand.

Here are some pictures of Blackheart Beauty's Deceit, taken indoors, in my bathroom, so not the best pictures (but you can click on them to enlarge them to see more detail), and it's not easy to photograph flakie polishes, either, but here are the photos I was able to take:

I started with just an accent nail.
I don't know why I held my pinkie out, but I assure you that I do have five fingers on my left hand.

See? Five fingers on my left hand.

I liked the polish so much that I put it on all my nails on my left hand.

I thought that the polish was similar to FingerPaint's Twisted flakie polish, so I tried Twisted on all my nails on my right hand.

Here are some pictures of FingerPaint's Twisted on my right hand:

Indoors, bathroom lighting again.

Weird pose or picture or both, isn't it?

You can see that Twisted's flakies lie flat on the nail with just the slightest amount of dimpling after top coat.

Sunlight.

Sunlight.

Indirect sunlight. The flakies are clearer on my pointer finger in this photo.

The polishes are similar enough that I could get away with putting a different one on each hand. There are quite a few differences between the polishes, though. The flakes in Deceit are more shard-like rather than the traditional fish flakes in Twisted. The flakes in Deceit stick out a bit, like most shard flakies, but the flakies in Twisted lie flat. Twisted is shinier but not as eye-catching. Also, Deceit has added glitter to the polish which contributes to it being more eye-catching. Deceit is in a pink base, so it tinted my manicure and changed the color of the L'Orange manicure, making it more red-orange rather than orange. Twisted comes in a clear base, so it doesn't change the color of your base polish. Twisted's flakes also seem to have more gold and green whereas Deceit looks more pink and purple. So, they are different enough to justify owning both . . . in my opinion, wink, wink.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

I apologize for not having blog posts up recently. Last week I had a migraine all week long, and this week I had to go to court a couple of times, so I was busier at work and have not had time until now to blog.

L'Oreal L'Orange was my manicure polish during the last week of July. I really loved this orange nail polish. In the pictures below it looks red, but it's spot-on orange in real life. My iPhone's camera just refused to show the orange as anything other than red. The color reminded me of orange Tic Tacs, but I think Tic Tacs are a darker shade of orange.

The formula is a thin cream. Maybe it's a crelly. I had visible nail line at two coats, and I still had it at three coats, but I was getting darker than the polish bottle color, and I didn't want to have more coats, so I stopped at three coats. The polish had a good formula, and it dried quickly. The cleanup was easy, too. It was very shiny even without top coat. The brush is wider than Revlon's traditional thin brush.

I don't see as many blog posts about L'Oreal's polishes; I think that may be because many bloggers won't use products from companies at all involved with animal testing or whose parent companies conduct testing on animals.

I love orange-colored nail polishes, so I noticed when the Pantone Tangerine Tango polishes came out in Sephora stores earlier this year. I had also heard that Sinful Colors Citrine was a dupe for Tangerine Tango. Rite Aid sold Citrine months ago, but we don't have Rite Aids in Florida, and my local drugstores didn't carry Citrine . . . until a month or so ago when I spotted Citrine at a Walgreens display of Sinful Colors. After asking for permission, I tested Citrine on my nail polish wheel right next to L'Oreal L'Orange, and they were identical. They are 100% dupes. So, I didn't buy Citrine then. A few weeks ago I finally bought the Pantone Tangerine Tango polish set, and while L'Orange is close to Tangerine Tango--just as close as Citrine--it's not a 100% dupe. But, if you own one of the three, you don't need to own the other two . . . unless you're a nut about orange polishes like me, and even I don't own all three, just two that are not 100% dupes. Tangerine Tango is sold as part of a four-polish set for about $17, L'Oreal polishes retail for about $7 or $8, and Sinful Colors is normally priced at $2 but often goes on sale for $1.

In the pictures below, I have on base coat, three coats of L'Orange, one coat of Seche Vite, and a coat of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat. I didn't get much shrinkage from the Seche Vite. The pictures were taken on day two of wearing the manicure and on day three I took the bottle pictures.

Direct sunlight. My camera could not focus on the color when it was in direct sunlight.
In direct sunlight, the polish started to "glow" with an effect similar to the glow that I love from Revlon Chili and Hits Hula.

Direct sunlight. This is the "glow" from another angle.

Direct sunlight. "Glow" from another angle.

Direct sunlight. Polish at a slightly different angle to the angle that created the "glow" above.

Indirect sunlight. Very shiny!
You can see some tip wear after a day of wear.

Indoors.

Indoors.

Indoors, on day three.

Indoors, on day three.
This may be the most color-accurate photo if you look at the shade of orange of the polish in the bottle.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

After a week of my Hits Demeter orange holo manicure, I added an accent on my ring finger with Jordana Glitters 17 Copper Blaze. I bought this earlier this year at K-Mart, and it was very inexpensive.

There is only one coat of Copper Blaze in the pictures below, but I did have to go over my brush strokes to get the brush to release the large hex glitter. With one coat of Copper Blaze, you can still see the underlying polish color. From what I can tell, the glitter is suspended in a clear base and does not alter the color of the underlying polish. The glitter lies flat, and the addition of a coat of Seche Vite made it very smooth. This was not a top coat hungry glitter.

I used Copper Blaze as the accent on my right hand, the one that doesn't often get photographed. On my left I had Hits Glitter Forte Punk Rock. My husband preferred the Hits glitter. He is not a fan of hex or chunky glitter. This is probably the only area where he is a traditionalist.

Please excuse my dry cuticles in the pictures below:

Indoors

You can see on my ring finger, near the top left of the photo, that the glitter lies completely flat and smooth.

Indirect sunlight
The glitter may appear golden in the pictures in the sun, but it's definitely orange rather than gold.

Sunlight

Sunlight

Sunlight
Blurry, but you can see the holo from Demeter showing through.

This was a gorgeous glitter polish. It is bright orange and would be perfect for Halloween.

One easy coat provides complete coverage without the underlying color showing through as far as I could tell. The glitter lies completely flat, although it is top coat hungry. Just one coat of Seche Vite still left a dull, very fine gritty feel rather than the glassy feel that I'm used to from Seche Vite.

I love the slightly wide and slightly flat Hits brush. I had absolutely no cleanup at all, and that's a first for me. The brush was perfect to get complete coverage on my nail. So, the cuticle edge that looks so clean in the pictures, that was without any cleanup at all.

I usually try out glitters or other top coats as an accent nail on Saturdays, the day before I take the polish off. In the pictures below, after a week's wear on my Hits Demeter manicure, I added the Punk Rock 614 on my ring finger as an accent. In the pictures I have a base coat, three coats of Hits Demeter, 1 coat of Seche Vite, and 4 coats of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat on all the nails, and on top of that on the accent nail I have one coat of Punk Rock 614 and a coat of Seche Vite.

NOTE: THE POLISH IS NOT AS BRIGHT OR ORANGE IN REAL LIFE AS IN THE PICTURES BELOW.

It is not easy to describe the actual color of the polish on my nails, especially as the color looked different in different lighting. Without sunlight or bright light on it, the polish was a dull or dusty orange. It was still very pretty, though. Sometimes it looked like the color of band-aids, like it had a little brown or beige in it. Sometimes it looked like butterscotch pudding. In its more muted form, I think it might be a nice color around Easter, and of course it would make a very nice color for Indian summer or fall. I would say it is a work-safe color because it doesn't stand out so much inside an office.

I used three coats, and there was still visible nail line in some lighting. At three coats it was a little darker than the bottle color, so I stopped at three, not to mention that adding another coat would have added more drying time. It did dry well, though.

The brush is a slightly wider, flatter and thicker brush than the traditional Revlon brush, for example. I normally don't like wider brushes, but I do like the Hits brushes.

The formula is very good. It wears very well, and I had no chips. I did have some regular tip wear, and I had some shrinkage from quick-dry top coats.

About Me

I am a happily married part-time stay-at-home doggie mom and part-time litigation attorney.
This blog will be like a journal where I keep track of my manicures and nail polish purchases.
Welcome to my blog, and thank you for reading!
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